I signed up for Send Your Name to MARS as part of the history in 2011
Nite nite Oppy is a sweet documentary (in my view it is REALLY lovely!).
I honestly couldn’t imagine how these scientists planned and conducted such a long~~~ ops duration for 8 Mars years (15 Earth years).
While my ISS E-FIELD Flames operation was merely Oppy’s 0.4%, it was only 21-testday (or around 131 hours).
It is definitely that nothing compares.
And Perseverance has already been in action for 663 sols!
In my mind, it was not so long ago that it was launched and then landed on Mars several months later.
I still recall that one of my MS student who was an intern at NASA Ames at that time, described the enthusiasm and how the whole helicopter team cheer for the success of launching and landing.
It was 2020, 2021 already!
Because of all these MARS rovers,
I went back to review my photos from the JPL open house visit in 2011.
And I did see all the MARS rovers (in various forms) over there including Oppy/Spirit, Curiosity and Sojourner, as well as the fascinating JPL machine shop with those jaw-dropping vending machines for drill bits/tools ♥🖤, the wheel models and the rover electronic module (REM).
Sojourner (front) and MER, Spirit and Oppy base (back), at 2011 JPL Open House photographed by YCC with my G2
2011 JPL Open House photographed by YCC with my G2
There was a sign-up sheet there, and people were writing down their names.It says “Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Visitor Signature Sheet”.
With a little confusion since it was open house, there was a poster displayed next to the sheet.
It describes that they will send your signature to MARS on the rover Curiosity (launched later that year 2011) as part of the history.
They were going to use the electronic beam lithography system to write on silicon wafer and then use the semiconductor processing from wafter, dicing to create chips which contains at least 50K names on each chip.
I signed up on the sheet right away!
Be Part of the History! Mars Science Lab (MSL) Visitor Signature Sheet at 2011 JPL Open House photographed by YCC
Out of “curiosity”, I just find out that JPL actually integrated the world and US participation map for this Send Your Names to Mars.
It turned out that California has the most participation among all the US participation (more than 71k names!). https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/participate/send-your-name/map/
Well, I guess my name has been up there on MARS! I wish there is a way to find out!
I am glad that I was somehow involved along in all kinds of way. It is a pleasure and happiness to be part of it.
#Spirit
#Opportunity
#Sojourner
#Curiosity
#Perseverance🖋
火星探測車 — “晚安 Oppy”
2011年，我簽名參加了「送你的名字到火星」的名單行列
“晚安 Oppy” 是一部很甜美的NASA紀錄片(對我來說是啦！)，十一月剛推出。
ＯＰＰＹ其實是機會號(oppourtunity)的小名。
看完之後，老實說，我完全無法想像，這些科學家究竟要怎麼規劃和連續操作執行這麼長～～～的任務，長達十五年(火星年八年）耶！
我的E-FIELD Flames太空實驗操作，也只是這個ＯＰＰＹ0.4%的時間而已，只有21個實驗日或是約131小時。
這怎能比啊！？
然後，前些日子的Perseverance毅力號火星探測車，竟然也已經執行663天火星日了!
怎麼總覺得好像才剛剛目睹他發射離開地球，然後幾個月後著陸火星而已。
還記得我的研究生當時在NASA Ames實習，描述他們整個直昇機團隊在發射和落地日，是如何的振奮鼓舞雀躍興奮！
然而這已經是２０２０和２０２１的事了。
也因為這些火星探測車的故事，
我翻找了２０１１年跑去NASA JPL Open House的開放參觀的照片，
然而我真在那裡見到了所有火星探測車的各種世代，旅居、勇氣／機會、好奇，還有ＪＰＬ超酷的機械工廠，裡面有看到會流口水的鑽頭自動販賣機 ♥🖤（！！），還有輪子模擬模型，以及探測車電子控制盒子模組(REM).
Sojourner旅居者 (前) and MER, Spirit and Oppy 勇氣與機會 base (後), 可愛的Ｇ２在２０１１ＪＰＬ ＯＰＥＮ ＨＯＵＳＥ攝
可愛的Ｇ２在２０１１ＪＰＬ ＯＰＥＮ ＨＯＵＳＥ拍攝
簿子上寫著「火星科學實驗室訪客簽到表」。
帶著些許的疑惑的同時，畢竟這是年度開放參觀日(應該會簽不完吧？)，眼尾餘光瞄到旁邊有一張文宣海報，
說只要在這訪客簽到簿上簽到，你的親筆簽名就會在之後的發射任務中，跟隨著火星探測車Curiosity 好奇號，一起發送到火星上！成為歷史的一部分喔！
他們利用微尺度的電子印刷結合半導體的製程把所有的簽名印到小小的晶圓上取下，每一個晶片大約可以有五萬個簽名。
毫不猶豫，馬上簽一下啦！
成為故事的一部分！火星科學實驗室 (MSL)訪客簽到簿
出於好奇，剛才發現其實ＪＰＬ有把所有地球上的簽名，依照地域性簡單的整合統計，分為全球和美洲參與地圖，ＪＰＬ稱這個活動為送你的名字到火星！Send Your Names to Mars。
原來，加州是所有美國州裡頭參與人數最多的州，多達七萬多的簽名啊！https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/participate/send-your-name/map/
看來，我的簽名，可真是在火星上了！真希望有方法可以知道啊！
覺得能一路用各種方式參與接觸到火星探測車的歷程，很開心也很幸福！
#Spirit勇氣號
#Opportunity機會號
#Sojourner旅居者
#Curiosity好奇號
#Perseverance毅力號🖋
YCC in 2011💜, a 2nd year ph.D. student 當時的我
